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From the makers of the award-winning BBC series and Dr Nick Barratt, the UK's leading authority on family history, comes the definitive, must-have guide to researching your family's roots and bringing your family history to life. Containing all you need to know whether you’re a new beginner or more experienced researcher.

Covering all access levels, from the new beginner to the more experienced researcher, the Encyclopedia of Genealogy is a comprehensive master class in solving the mysteries of your personal heritage. Begining with advice on the very first steps, before providing a detailed explanation of the range of sources you will encounter when trying to flesh out your ancestor's lives.

The Encyclopedia is divided into sections, each a fascinating standalone reference article so that you can easily pick and mix the relevant information according to the route your journey through your family history takes you.

The Encyclopedia of Genealogy guides you through:

• Getting started, including research planning, sources, how to construct a family tree and working online• Going further, combining historical context (from military history to migration and family secrets) with practical advice on sources• Troubleshooting the most common problems such as common surnames and missing ancestors• Surname databases• Use of DNA such as DNA profiling services• Organisational tools such as designing a website and information about software and community projects.

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Review

Praise for the TV Series:'Combining personal quest, social history and autobiography, it proved a triumphant mixture.' Daily Telegraph

From the Author

The popularity of family history can be gauged by the number of websites and publications about the subject. So why produce yet another book about tracing your roots?

As the Who Do You Think You Are? BBC TV series has shown, modern genealogy is far more than collecting names - it's a journey into one's personal heritage. Consequently, it's not sufficient to simply identify who your forebears were - the real excitement lies in tracking down where they lived, what jobs they did, how local and national events affected their lives - or, in some cases, how their actions affected events.

The Who Do You Think You Are? Encyclopedia of Genealogy has been written with this fresh perspective in mind, and shows that we can find out far more about our ancestors than their name and vital statistics of birth, marriage and death. Consequently, it differs in its approach from other titles on genealogy by tackling real subjects that people discover lurking in their family backgrounds - military heroes, illegitimate ancestors, criminals and bigamists - and then placing these topics in their historical context, so that you can fully understand why your ancestors were doing what they did, such as disappearing around the world to fight one of Queen Victoria's many wars. The historical background is then linked to a description of the main sources you'll need to consult to learn about these subjects, and where they can be found, whilst providing practical guidance that allows you to extract the most from your research; all drawn from over 5 years experience working on the series, and for nearly 20 years as a professional historian.

By spending time sifting through records within the family and in archives, libraries and museums around the country and even overseas, we can rediscover the lost world of the past, viewed through the eyes of our relatives. In many instances, we can bring their words and deeds back to life through these records, and give a fresh perspective to the `bigger picture' history that we often take for granted.

At school, history runs the risk of becoming a procession of dates, events and `famous' people. For example, textbooks on the First World War focus on the campaigns, battles, tactics and outcomes. Yet our ancestors served on the front line amidst the mud and blood, facing the horror of going over the top. Their service records detail this; their letters and photographs to loved ones back home tell of their hopes and fears; and their perspective of events make them seem all too real. It is this level of history - gritty, real and personal - that the encyclopaedia takes you to.

Indeed, the case studies, drawn from the celebrities featured in the TV series, show what can be done with some patient research; but it's important to stress that anyone can put together the sort of findings that make the Who Do You Think You Are? show so fascinating to watch. There's no mystery, no secret - it is simply painstaking detective work that people are doing around the country every day. By picking up this book you can join their ranks, bring your past back to life and see the world around you from a new perspective.

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I have been researching my family tree for a few years as a keen amateur. I wish I had this book when I started, because it is a fabulous resource. It won't turn you into a professional genealogist, but it provide you will all you need to get started on your research.

Although the book is clearly a tie-in with the BBC television series "Who Do You Think You Are?" it overlaps with the series only by calling upon examples from episodes of the series. For example, it uses the "Bill Oddie" episode to explain a point about researching death certificates. Thus, you don't need to have seen the series to use the book. Indeed, I would argue that the series does not really show much useful "real" genealogy at all.

Barratt begins the book showing you how to start your research - by collecting information from living relatives, such as stories, certificates, photos, the family Bible, medals, and so on, and then using this to build a basic family tree composed of what you know (rather than guesses and myths). The rest of the book takes you through the key areas of genealogy, including civil registration documents, parish records, military records, and so on. He also takes a look at researching overseas relatives, slavery, immigration, medical records, and many other kinds of records and resources. This book focuses mainly on UK ancestors, which is inevitable for a book aimed at a UK-based readership. It therefore won't be especially helpful if you were born in England but 90% of your ancestors lived in America.

It sometimes skims over the trickier details of subjects, giving the basic facts but leaving you with questions. I would defend that design decision, as the book covers a huge number of subjects in just 531 pages. It would be a far bigger book if it really did cover every subject exhaustively.

The writing style is clear and concise. The book is broken into chapters and sections that make it easy to dip into and find what you want. The book's design is wonderful. It sets out information clearly and uses fonts very nicely, too. It all goes to make the text easy to read and the information accessible. There are occasional typographical errors and grammatical faux pas, but these are minimal for a publication of this size.

I can't find any major faults with it. It does excellently what it sets out to do. If you are starting out on UK-based genealogy as a hobby, this is a brilliant book to have with you. I read mine from cover to cover, and I re-read relevant chapters when return to study particular kinds of records.

I started researching my family history a couple of years ago with a subscription on Ancestry.co.uk and that site is very helpful. However, this book has even more tips and helpful suggestions in it and it's title really does say it all. I have found it to be extremely helpful in every way. If you are researching your family roots, or even someone else's, this is a fantastic resource book to start with. It is very comprehensive and tells you (I think) everything you need to know about how to go about this task. Complete with websites, addresses and phone numbers, and many, many useful idea's to help you. I highly recommend it to anyone!

Some of it may seem quite obvious to anyone who has done any sort of research before, but I imagine the book is aimed at everyone interested in family history, including people without a universtiy education. It has a massive amount of information about places, websites and texts to visit for your research. The book is well organised, has a nice layout which is pleasing on the eye (especially compared to some other genealogy texts I looked at). I like the examples used from the television show despite hardly ever watching it! I actually bought this for my dad but ended up "borrowing" it from him quite soon afterwards... I won't be giving it back any time soon!

Just started out researching my family tree and having checked out a few books on the subject at the local library I saw this on Amazon.So pleased I bought it as It covers just about every question on genealogy.Great purchase and invaluable